The use of SMED to eliminate small stops in a manufacturing firm

Abstract

PurposeThe paper seeks to reduce or eliminate the small stop time loss using SMED in a lean manufacturing environment.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the lean manufacturing single minute exchange of dies (SMED) technique to reduce or eliminate the small stop time loss. The overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is measured before and after the improvements are implemented.FindingsThe application of the single minute exchange of dies (SMED) technique in a manufacturing industry (XYZ Corporation) completely eliminated the small stop time loss. The SMED technique which has been only widely used to improve the changeover loss has been proven to be an effective approach to also tackle the small stop, a loss which has been regarded as one of the most difficult losses to be reduced among all the six big OEE losses. The elimination of the small stop has resulted in a valuable 2.08 percent improvement of XYZ's OEE.Practical implicationsThe finding from this study is expected to benefit lean organizations in pursuit of tackling their small stops losses.Originality/valueAlthough the SMED technique's impact and contribution to reduce or eliminate setup and changeover time loss is undeniable, the authors have extended the successful application of this technique to another key area of OEE's big loss, i.e. small stop.